Various methods for making folding vehicle tops are known and widely used. A folding top and a manufacturing method therefor are described in EP 0 884 207 [U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,901] by the present applicant. For a vehicle soft top, it is known from the cited document to connect a first cover surface element to another structural element by a polyurethane (PUR) element. According to this publication, the PUR element may connect two cover surface elements to another, a cover surface element to a rear window, a cover surface element to a rod assembly part, or a cover surface element to a roof drip rail.
Furthermore, a folding top for a vehicle is known from EP 1 033 270 [U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,518] by the present applicant, in which a cast-resin bead element connects an outer soft top cover to a glass panel. In addition, a plug-in seat is provided inside the bead element that allows connection of the bead element to a roof liner, i.e. the inner soft top cover, by plug-in connection elements.
A refinement of this folding top is described in DE 20 2006 017 746 U1, likewise by the present applicant. This publication also describes a cast-resin profile having a plug-in seat for the mounting the roof liner.
The latter two publications describe the option of providing an undercut seat in a cast-resin bead element. The publications do not describe the manner in which the undercut seat is produced in the cast-resin bead element.
In practice, in recent years this has basically been carried out in the present applicant's manufacturing facilities in such a way that the casting mold, as a mold component, has a male profile with a head area and a neck area, the head area being wider than the neck area.
After the casting compound has cured, the cast-resin bead element thus formed was removed from the mold. In this regard, for the fixedly held casting mold, forced demolding from the male profile took place. A female profile that is complementary to the male profile was formed in the bead element. This female profile formed a seat groove.